In the manufacture of some radial-lead electrical components, a plurality of looped pins are formed from a continuous length of small guage wire. Each pin is formed with a closed end and an open end at opposite extremeties of the pin and with parallel legs extending from the closed end to the open end in a hair-pin-like configuration. The formed pins are positioned in a spaced, parallel arrangement on a cardboard strip-like carrier with the opposite ends of each pin extending beyond opposite side edges of the carrier. An adhesive strip is then placed over intermediate portions of the pins and onto underlying portions of the carrier whereby the strip is adhesively secured to the carrier. A pin-carrier assembly is thus formed whereby the pins are retained with the carrier in the spaced, parallel arrangement.
A machine for manufacturing such a pin-carrier assembly is commercially available from Die-Craft Metal Products, Inc. of Des Plaines, Ill. as the Model 14.
The pin-carrier assembly is then processed through a series of stations whereat an electrical component body, such as a tantalum capacitor body, is attached about the open end of each of the pins. Thereafter, the extreme end portions of the closed end of each pin are severed from the remainder of the pin whereby the parallel legs of each pin are now separated and extend in free fashion from the formed component body as radial leads thereof to thereby form an electrical component. The individual components remain secured to the carrier by the adhesive strip and can now be transported for ultimate soldering, epoxy coating, testing, marking and packaging leading to ultimate individual assembly with an electrical circuit.
While the above-described process for manufacturing the pin-carrier assemblies has been generally successful, at unpredictable times, the adhesive strip has a tendency to become dislodged from the carrier thereby permitting the pins, or the ultimately formed radial lead components, to skew and disorient from the remaining pins. This is particularly so where the bodies of the components are of a heavier weight or where the pins or leads are spaced closer together which reduces the adhesion-to-carrier area. Efforts to improve the adhesive quality of the strip have not resolved the problem.
When a disoriented pin on a pin-carrier assembly is detected, it is in one of the final component manufacturing stations. When a single pin becomes disoriented, including an assembly with a component body, the deleterious results are cascading whereby trailing assemblies are also affected due to the loss of component positioning. This creates defective product which necessitates costly down-time in the manufacture of the components and loss of the resulting defective products.
Consequently in order to obtain full utilization of the pin-carrier assemblies, a technique must be found to enhance the securance of the adhesive strip with the carrier to retain the pins, and the pins with the component bodies, in the desired spaced, parallel arrangement.